Addressing the captains of businesses at a luncheon meeting organised here by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industries, the Nobel laureate on Tuesday also proposed the creation of a special social business fund through venture capital whose motive will not be profit maximisation.

"Why don't we enact law to create a microcredit bank? The legal framework is very important because a microcredit bank can mobilise deposits. What is more important than money is the legal framework so that microfinance activities can take place smoothly," Yunus said.

During his nearly hour-long extempore speech, Yunus dwelt mainly on microfinance and later replied to a number of questions.

Yunus said "The moment you create a microcredit bank, you need a regulatory body because you are raising money."

He said while conventional banks raise deposits in rural areas, they channelise the funds to metropolitan cities and mega projects whereas the deposits mobilised by the Grameen Bank are ploughed back locally to develop the local economies in villages.Reiterating that the poor are bankable, he said microcredit is a small tool to help the poor people to "unwrap and discover their entrepreneurial skills".

In this context, he pointed out how 8,000 of the 85,000 beggars to whom the Grameen Bank had extended loans came out of begging and switched over door-to-door sales in rural areas.

Yunus said there should be a separate stock market for microcredit with the orientation of welfare of street children.

The conventional stock markets are aimed at making big money and maximising profits but there can be a separate bourse with shares for raising money for microcredit, he said.

Reiterating his concept of social business based on no-loss basis, Yunus said there should be a social business fund through venture capital.

"It is a challenge how we can create social business," he said and cited in this context the alliance by Grameen Bank and French food and beverage retail major Danone in October 2005 for producing yogurt with micro nutrients for malnourished children of Bangladesh.

The Grameen Bank chief suggested free market economy and businesses based on profit maximisation and social business can co-exist and said even microcredit business can be run to both maximise profit as well as help people to come out of poverty.

Asked how India can grapple with the problem of farmers committing suicides under debt burden, he said borrowers should never be made to feel the guilt if they cannot repay the loan but should be helped by rescheduling their debt over a long time so that they do not feel the pressure. This is what the Grameen Bank is doing, he added.

Asked about the Transparency International rating Bangladesh as the most corrupt country, Yunus said only a very small segment of the people in his country is corrupt and the common and poor people are honest and an example of this is the 99 percent repayment of Grameen Bank loans.

Yunus said while market economy was fine "I find it humiliating that only profit-making is the sole driving force of business because profit-maximisation is just one part of human beings and you have to think of the whole human being".

Regarding Grameen Bank's plans in India, he said his bank is in talks with Assam government to set up Grameen Trust Bank model for microcredit and run it for two years before handing over to local authorities.